Tomas Doherty
A further 3,805 Covid cases have been confirmed in the Republic, the Department of Health said.
As of Sunday morning, there are 582 Covid patients in hospital, up 26 from Saturday, including 106 in intensive care units.
HSE chief executive Paul Reid urged the public to be vigilant to arrest the high levels of community transmission.
He tweeted on Saturday: “The virus is now prolific in most communities & nobody wants to be the next hospitalised case.
“An immediate reduction by all of us of risk activities is needed to turn this around.”
The warning follows one of the highest-ever daily totals of Covid cases in Ireland on Friday, with 5,483 new cases.
The chief medical officer, Dr Tony Holohan, urged people to think about the number of contacts they have in the coming weeks.
He said: “It’s not about one single thing that you do, it’s about the combination of all of those, each of them is necessary.
“So wearing masks, social distancing, staying away from crowds, behaving appropriately if you have symptoms, recognising risk and thinking ahead about the contacts that you encounter over the course of the forthcoming week or two weeks.”
